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Teenager gets prison sentence for city house burglaries
An 18-year-old city has been sentenced to 20 months in prison for a spate of burglaries and related car thefts from homes around the city.
Gary Cronin, of 14 Droim Chaoin, Bishop O’Donnell Road, was due for release yesterday after serving another sentence imposed last March for previous burglaries.
However, he went straight back to prison after he pleaded guilty to five more burglaries and the thefts of cars from some of the homes between last October and January this year.
Gary Cronin, a father of one, who has 53 previous convictions, 26 of which are for burglaries, pleaded guilty to breaking into homes in Dangan, Renmore Park, Tuam Road, Murrough and Sceilig Ard.
Four of the homes were occupied at the time of the break-ins.
Cronin took car keys and stole cars from people’s driveways.
All of the cars were subsequently recovered, but other items such as expensive laptops and mobile phones aswell as money were never recovered.
Defence solicitor, Sarah O’Dowd said Cronin had started taking valium, alcohol and cannabis from the age of 11 and had had a difficult childhood.
Judge Mary Fahy said she knew Cronin well and had given him chances in the past.
She sentenced him to a total of 20 months in prison and disqualified him for six years for driving the stolen cars without insurance.
The death has occurred of the former Bishop of Galway, Kilmacduagh and Kilfenora Martin Drennan, six years after he announced his retirement on health grounds. He was aged 78.
The Galway Diocesan Office confirmed the death this (Saturday) afternoon of the Bishop and Apostolic Administrator Emeritus, who oversaw the Diocese for eleven years.
Born on January 2, 1944 in Piltown, County Kilkenny, he studied for the priesthood at Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, from where he was ordained to the priesthood in 1968. His brother Michael is also a priest.
Following his ordination, he continued his studies in Rome where he was awarded a Licentiate in both sacred theology and sacred scripture. He returned to Rome in 1980 to become spiritual director at the Pontifical Irish College for the next five years.
He became a lecturer in sacred scripture at Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, where he continued to teach until his appointment as Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin in 1997 with responsibility for East Wicklow and South Dublin.
Following the retirement of Bishop James McLoughlin, Bishop Drennan was appointed Bishop of Galway and Kilmacduagh and Apostolic Administrator of Kilfenora and he was installed on July 3, 2005 in Galway Cathedral.
Outgoing Cllr Terry O’Flaherty (Ind) is on course to retain her City Council seat – and top the poll in City East.
With 33% of the boxes tallied, Cllr O’Flaherty is polling strongly, particularly in Renmore.
Michael John Crowe is ahead of his running mate Alan Cheevers for the Fianna Fáil vote, according to the early figures, although that could change when Doughiska and Roscam boxes are opened.
The Green Party’s Claire Hillery is on about 7%, with Fine Gael on 10% and Sinn Fein on 5%.
The opening of boxes for the local elections began at 9am this morning in Leisureland when the tallymen (and women) kicked into gear.
As regards the Galway County Council elections, the smaller areas are being opened first which means that the four-seater Connemara North boxes will be first in the pecking order.
It will be followed by Gort-Kinvara (5 seats), Connemara South (5 seats), Athenry-Oranmore (7 seats), Ballinasloe (6 seats), Loughrea (5 seats) and finally Tuam (7 seats).
The boxes in these areas will be opened and tallied in that particular order before being transferred to the Galway Lawn Tennis Club on Threadneedle Road where the counting will commence around mid-morning.
That is when the fun will really begin – although the tallies should give a good indication as to where most of the seats are destined.
As regards the city, the Galway City East boxes were opened first, followed by Galway City Central and finally Galway City West. These votes will be transferred to the Westside Centre by around 11am for counting.
There are 39 seats on Galway County Council to be filled with 18 on Galway City Council. The City Council count is expected to conclude on Saturday night but the County Council count – with seven electoral areas to be filled – could well go into Monday.
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